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Monday, April 27, 2009

Yes, instead of this Saturday at Midnight Eastern Time as originally planned, the deadline for entries has been moved to Monday at noon eastern time. After Monday, no more nominations will be taken for the FitGems FitMom Contest.

SPEAK UP! is a blog segment where I ask a question and you speak your peace in the comments below. There's no right or wrong answer, just your honest thoughts.

In a profession where there's a lot of beautiful and talented females, Monica Brant is in a class of her own. One can argue that she's the most popular fitness/figure competitors in our time. However, there's one thing that's alluded her throughout her career...and that's winning a figure pro show.

My question to you is...Why hasn't Monica Brant won a single figure title? Is is something she's doing or not doing? Does it have to do with politics? Are there people within the IFBB that just don't want her to win despite her coming in the way the judges want her to?

Again, I don't know the question. I'm just wanting to know your thoughts on this.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Today, I'm introducing a new feature of the FitGems blog entitled "Fitting Observations". I pick a particular competitor or event and tell it like I see it. Need I remind you that these are JUST MY OPINIONS!!! Don't get your panties all in a bunch if I happen to say something that doesn't please you as much.

Okay...let's get this new blog feature rolling, shall we?! :-) For the first feature of this part of the blog, I observe Trish Warren (get your mind out of the gutter, pervs! I'm talking about her current career in the IFBB, thank you.)

Is is just me, or has everyone been getting B.M.F. these days? By that, I'm talking about Black Mamba fever. The Black Mamba is another name for one of the today's rising fitness pros, Trish Warren. If you think she looks familiar and went by another name, then you're right. A while back, she was Trish Mayberry. However, now she's happily married to top IFBB Bodybuilder and MAJOR threat to the Arnold and Olympia titles, Branch Warren. Yep, I guess you can say that the Warrens are the "It" couple in IFBB.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about Trish that makes her...unique. Special. One to watch, even. She has the "it" factor. And when you have the "it" factor, you can only go one direction and that's up. Trish has been doing exactly that, and it's showing big time.

A top fitness competitor needs to have charisma, talent, strength, and, or course, an amazing physique that can handle the physical challenges of fitness, which is what makes fitness unique. Trish seems to posses all of that and more, and is being rightfully rewarded at last for having a great combination of charisma, talent, strength, and a killer physique with great muscularity, vascularity, and overall conditioning that's perfect for fitness. Dare I say that she might be one of the best complete competitors out there today! I mean that 110%. All she needs is more showings like she had at her first Olympia last year (top ten in her debut) and her first Arnold this year (top ten in her debut) as well as the New York Pro (2008 and 2009-top three finishes), and Trish will be on her way to joining the IFBB fitness elite in no time. She may even be the one leading a new class of IFBB fitness elite in the near future, who knows?

So what's my prediction for the Black Mamba? She will place in the top six at the 2009 Olympia, win a fitness show in 2010 or 2011, and be in top contention for the Fitness International and Fitness Olympia title until her body says "I've had enough".

Be on the lookout for Mrs. Warren in the years ahead. You'll see her next competing at the 2009 Fitness Olympia. The Black Mamba is on the prowl, and she's hunting down IFBB immortality. IFBB Fitness, you've been put on notice. BEHOLD THE ALL-MIGHTY BLACK MAMBA!!!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Well...what do you do when you have tough competition, for example like the Europa Show of Champions this upcoming weekend? You give away cash, that's what! Well...at least that's what Issac Hinds and Sioux are doing. Both of them are holding contests where you will receive $100 for correctly guessing the winners and top placings in this weekend's huge contest.Issac will be giving away $100 to anyone who can correctly guess the top five in figure IN CORRECT ORDER. Click here to learn more and to enter his contest.Siouxcountry is doing the same thing, but you must correctly guess the top EIGHT in order. Click here to enter that contest.Don't hold me to this, but I might just fork over $25 or so (via PayPal) to anyone who can guess who will get the Olympia quailfications for fitness or figure. If you correctly guess BOTH, I just might hand over 50 buck (via PayPal)...that's of course, if anyone dares to take up on this offer. Oh yeah, unlike the other two, I don't care if it's in order or not. :-) There you go...if you have the luck of the Irish, are one hell of a guesser, or happen to see into the future and know EXACTLY what will go down on O-Town, I would take the opportunity to enter these contests. I mean, money is being given away just for guessing.With that being said...GOOO...FREAKING...LUCK! AI YI YI!!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Earlier this year, I personally participated in the annual FBBFan.com Sponsorshop program. I'm proud to say that they are doing it again!FBBFan.com is proud to announce Round-Two of it’s 2009 sponsorship program to help support and promote the athletes involved in the sportof women’s bodybuilding, fitness and figure!

The inaugural 2009 sponsorship was awarded March 1, 2009, and was presented to Eryn Strickland. Eryn is an NPC figure competitor fromthe state of Maryland. Through her blog and journaling on FBBFan.com,she has shown and shared her dedication to achieving her goals in the sport.

Round-Two brings more fun prizes and products! FBBFan.com will begiving away a minimum monetary award of $250.00 and a custom caricature drawing courtesy of the Female Muscle Factory. Also up for grabs, a $250.00 gift certificate from Athletica Clothing for workout gear to keep you looking good and comfortable in the gym! Pro Tan will be awarding a selection of their products to get you ready to step on-stage and show-off your winning physique! Michelle’s Magic Morsels will award a gift basket of their delicious protein cookies for a fun and healthy snack!FBBFan.com will award the round two sponsorship prizes July 15, 2009,visit http://www.fbbfan.com to learn more and enter to win today!Good luck to everyone that participates!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Got your attention?! Hope so.The Great Sioux man is at it again. He's giving away 75 dollars to anyone who can name the top eight in this weekend's New York Pro Fitness in order. This is another reason why Sioux is viewed as a top person in the eyes of the female competitors as well as other members of the industry.For more information about this contest, click here.Good luck to everyone entering the contest, and good luck to everyone in New York this weekend!!!

I saw on her Facebook that Monica has uploaded her new website, and all I can say is that I'm very impressed. Issac Hinds was responsible for the new look. As always, he did an fantastic job. If you're a fan of Monica (seriously, who isn't a fan of this future IFBB Hall-of-Famer?), come check out the new Monica Brant site!

Monday, April 6, 2009

This was something that I should have touched on earlier, but better late than never, right?!

My site is no super-site by any means of the imagination, nor is the site meant to be one. However, the FitGems Nation tries to meet the needs of everyone there, while attempting to stay positive and respectful to everyone.

One of the things the FitGems Nation offers is groups tailored to many parts of the industry, which include nutrition, training, photography, blogging, and many other aspects of the industry. I've even created groups for the many female divisions of this sport. And there will be more groups added as the site grows.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

What is your favorite fitness show of all time, and who would you like to see have one in the future? This is something I've been thinking about for quite some time now.

My favorite of all time is Kiana's Flex Appeal. She was one of the ladies that helped make women have muscles acceptable in the mainstream world. For you Kiana fans out there, she's on ESPN Classic every weekday morning (Monday-Friday) at 7am Eastern/6am Central.

As far as who could have a show of their own? Here's what I posted on Siouxcountry when I brought up the same topic eons ago:

Jennifer Gates: inspiration to mommies everywhere.Christine Pomponio-Pate: see Jennifer. Plus she's part Italian. I could see her as the "Italian Kiana Tom". LOL.Julie Shipley-Childs: a cancer survivor who overcame a good deal to be a top star in the fitness world.Elanie Goodland: a mom and grandma and looks INCREDIBLE! If that doesn't say "inspirational", I don't know what does!Adela Garcia: An inspiration...and who doesn't like Latinas?

Click here to view the entire discussion I brought up several months ago on the same board.

Do you have any suggestions? Leave a comment below.Here's the results for last month's Poll of the Month:I asked After a year in effect, do you consider the new figure guidelines a success or failure? 66% of you said that it was a failure, while 33% said that it was a success. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.This month's question is: Do you have high hopes for the bikini division? Personally, if there anything like the overall winner of the Arnold Amateur (Ali Sonoma), then I think it's gonna be a nice addition to the NPC and IFBB. But that's just my opinion.Oh yeah...HAPPY APRIL, EVERYONE!!!

You doubt the power of the fans? You doubt female bodybuilding exist? You think it's dying? How about you tell the folks at Siouxcountry and Unreal Muscle that? Both sites (as well as its members) went above and beyond the call of duty to not only make sure that Tampa would have female bodybuilding in 2010, but in the process, they were able to help bring it back for this year as well. Here's the official statement from Tim Gardner, the promoter of the Tampa show:2009 REINSTATEMENT CONFIRMED

It was quite the painful dilema on March 17th to publically announce that I would have to cancel the IFBB female bodybuilding division from the 2009 IFBB Tampa Pro Bodybuilding Weekly Championships' schedule. After the announcement reached the bodybuilding community, a few individuals reached out to me and asked what could be done to bring female bodybuilding back to Tampa in 2010. I simply replied that just that particular division alone budgets out to $12,000 which does not include any costs of the venue, judges, stage set, hotel, advertising, transportation, trophies, etc. and that I would require it by December of 2009 to inform the IFBB office of my 2010 intentions.

Two weeks later, we fast forward to what has miraculously transpired to only a short ten days of effort to raise, collect and dedicate not $12,000 but $17,000 to the IFBB female bodybuilding sponsorship of our Tampa production.

I know what you are thinking, April's Fools, right? As surreal as this seems, this is 100% fact. With IFBB Pro Debbie Bramwell at the helm, siouxcountry.com, photographer John Hawley and approximately twelve individuals plus Ed and Betty Pariso as its supporting cast shot out of the gates by way of paypal to pledge $3,400. Great pace for a December '09 target date! Lo and behold, I wake up on Saturday the 28th to an anonymous email stating that his website community, unrealmuscle.com would contribute the balance of $8,600 and asked would that solidify a 2010 Tampa event? I replied that I would inform Mr. Manion of our intentions and start planning for 2010. Later in the day a second email appears asking if the 2009 female portion could be reinstated since the sponsorship budget was covered so early and also if additional funds were raised if it were possible to be added to the female bodybuilders' prize money? Again, another reply of I will inform Mr. Manion and we will also have to confirm the sponsorship deposits before making a public announcement of that magnitude.

Ladies and gentlemen of our vast and prestigious IFBB and NPC family, I am so honored to report today that the 2009 IFBB Tampa Pro Bodybuilding Weekly Championships will be intact just as its inaugural season with IFBB open men, IFBB 202 lb. men and IFBB open women bodybuilding in conjunction with the NPC Tim Gardner Extravaganza Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships.

After careful discussion with Mr. Manion, his vote of confidence and the strong support from siouxcountry.com and unrealmuscle.com, I decided to reinstate the female portion and bring it back stronger for the athletes and fans alike. We have increased the prize money and added two more places to our contest as such:

This is a true testament to our bodybuilding community supporting its sport of passion without segregation of its forms of disciplines. This is short of being unbelievable, especially in spite of our current economic environment. I cannot speak highly enough of the positive impact that siouxcountry.com & unrealmuscle.com have placed on our entire sport and not just for the love of female bodybuilding but the love of our organization(s). This will set a new precedence of enthusiasm and pride that will hopefully be contagious for all of our IFBB shows, the platform for our champion athletes.

Thank you.Tim Gardnerwww.ifbbtampapro.comThis alone should show you that as long as there are fans out there, then this sport will continue to live. Yes, it's just one event, but usually it's one event that sparks something bigger and better. Who knows what this will lead to in the future? Hopefully better things. I'm a member of both of these sites, and I can't honestly be more proud and honored to be a member at both Siouxcountry and Unreal Muscle. To me, they did more than saved a show, they helped save a sport. Yes We Can?! No..no..no. YES WE DID!

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